Hero neighbour leads pensioner to safety after fire

A man who saw smoke billowing out of an elderly neighbour’s house in Kingswood banged on her window and led her and her dog to safety from the fire which had broken out in the kitchen.

Joe Davis had been in Old Plough pub in Westons Way in Kingswood with his family yesterday afternoon when his mum asked him to pop to their home in nearby Gee Moors to check on the roast potatoes.

Walking home at around 3.45pm the 26-year-old noticed smoke billowing out of a neighbour’s house and began banging on the window to alert the pensioner.

Joe led the woman, who had tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire herself, to safety, along with her dog. He dialled 999, before going back in to try to put out the flames on the hob with a towel covering his face to protect him from the smoke, but as he was doing so the extractor fan caught fire.

He then tried to search for the keys to move the woman’s car, which was blocking the garden gate, but said that by now the smoke was really toxic. Fortunately fire crews arrived within minutes.

A spokesperson for Avon Fire & Rescue said that two firefighters entered the house to extinguish the flames and clear the property of smoke and a woman in her 80s was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation while Joe was given oxygen at the scene. Fire crews then stayed to offer fire safety advice to neighbours.

Joe, who runs the 127 Hair & Beauty salon in Bitton as well as MJ’s Live Music Venue in Kingswood, has been inundated with messages of praise and has been hailed as a hero on Facebook, but says that instinct kicked in and he was just glad to be in the right place at the right time and that she was safe.